Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) WHO Situation Report 75

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report 75

Issued 6 May 2021

Highlights

• Infections in both the West Bank and Gaza continue to decline, raising hopes that the current waves are coming to an end – but hospitals in both areas stay busy
• Another 20,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine have arrived in oPt, a donation from the Russian Federation

WHO preparedness, readiness and response

WHO continues to work closely with partners to support Ministry of Health’s (MoH) efforts to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Coordination, planning and monitoring​

• The state of emergency over COVID-19 decreed by President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank has been extended again for a further 30 days, from Monday 3 May until the start of June 2021
• In Gaza, local authorities have eased the previously imposed restrictions, as follows:
• Lifting nightly curfew, allowing pedestrian movement and opening of shops
• Allowing vehicular movement until 12am on all days of the week, including Friday and Saturday
• Reopening mosques for night prayers.

Surveillance

• The WHO risk assessment remains high: COVID-19 infections in the Gaza Strip continue to account for the majority of all cases in the oPt, but active new cases are slowly in decline, and the positivity testing rate is also down; cases in the West Bank are following the same pattern – but hospitals there remain busy with critically ill patients
• The breakdown of active COVID-19 cases across the oPt is as follows: Gaza Strip (63.2%), followed by the West Bank governorates of Nablus (13.2%), Tulkarm (7.2%), Ramallah (4.1%), Jenin (3.8%), Hebron (3.2%), Qalqilya (1.5%) and Bethlehem and Tubas both (0.7%)
• The overall Case Fatality Rate (CFR) across oPt remains at 1.1 %. The CFR is the proportion of deaths among identified confirmed cases.

Laboratory testing and diagnostics

• The number of tests conducted in the oPt has decreased by 20% during the reporting period (30 April – 6 May), with 23,718 tests conducted
• In the Gaza Strip, an average of 1,644 tests per day have been conducted over the past week (30 April – 6 May) with a positivity rate of 28%.

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), Isolation and Case Management, Operations Support and Logistics 

• The overall occupancy rate of COVID-19 dedicated hospital beds in the Gaza Strip is 43%, with 250 of 587 beds occupied. Currently, 35 of the 77 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds (45%) are occupied, with four patients requiring invasive mechanical ventilation
• The medical response situation in the West Bank remains largely unchanged: ICU bed occupancy is a little lower at 78% (136 ICU beds occupied) – but 40 patients are still on ventilators
• WHO has concluded a training on critical care nursing in the Gaza Strip, supported by WHO EMRO. A total of 190 nurses, including 10 coached trainers, have benefited from the conducted activity funded by the oPt Humanitarian Fund.(Watch here).

Maintaining Essential Health Services

COVID-19 Vaccination Update

Latest vaccine arrivals

• PA Health Minister Mai Alkaileh stated on Voice of Palestine radio (20 April) that the OPt has bought 4.5 million doses of the Pfizer and Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines at a cost of $27.5 million. Alkaila said the vaccines will arrive ‘soon’
• A donation of 20,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine from the Russian Federation to the PA MoH arrived in the oPt on 29 April.

Vaccination coverage

• 301,643 people have been vaccinated in total across the oPt: 263,475 in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem), and 38,168 in Gaza. These figures represent around 6% of the total Palestinian population, and 8% of those targeted for vaccination, according to the PA MoH
• Of these numbers, the total who have received their second dose are 193,127 in the oPt overall (excluding East Jerusalem)
• According to the report received from the COGAT, Israel completed on 20 April its ‘second phase’ of vaccinating around 110,000 Palestinian workers. These numbers are included in the total numbers of vaccinated stated above
• A recent study from the Public Health England shows that the UK COVID-19 vaccination programme has prevented 10,400 deaths in those aged 60 and older up to the end of March, referring to the use of its three approved vaccines including AstraZeneca (Read more).

Don’t miss our next SITREP which will be in two weeks’ time on 20 May 2021

HAPPY EID AL-FITR!

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